Another innovative architectural design will soon be dotting Surrey’s cityscape with plans to build a new Coast Capital Savings head office to be located next to the King George Skytrain Station.

B.C.’s second largest credit union has signed a contract with PCI Developments Corp. for the construction and leasing of about 70 per cent of the approximately 180,000 square foot, nine-story property, with a targeted late 2015 completion date. Coast Capital’s “Help Headquarters”, as the new head office will be known, will join buildings like the Central City Tower and City Centre Library that have established Surrey as the home for some of the province’s most groundbreaking modern architecture and an attractive location for businesses.

Read more at Newswire: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1091297/coast-capital-s-new-head-office-to-boost-surrey-city-centre-revitalization

Polygon Homes has applied to the City of Richmond to rezone an 8.5 acre site at 8311-8371 Cambie Road and 3651 Sexsmith Road from Single Family and Auto-Oriented Commercial (CA) to High Rise Apartment based on the Capstan Village City Centre Plan.

Polygon is planning a 478,019 SF residential project, with three towers containing 528 dwellings, new streets, pedestrian linkages, and public art. The proposal also includes $4.2M in funding towards the future construction of the Capstan Canada Line station (total cost $25M), $5.7M in funding towards the to the City’s Affordable Housing Reserve in lieu of building affordable housing units on site, construction of affordable housing units elsewhere within Richmond; and the replacement of an existing City-owned playing field at 3651 Sexsmith Road (Cambie Field) with a larger park. The total density will be 2.375 FAR.

Source: City of Richmond

SmartCentres has submitted an application to the City of Richmond to build a open-format shopping centre on a 17-acre site in the West Cambie area of Richmond. The project, known as Central at Garden City, is located on Garden City Road between Alderbridge and Alexandra Road. The site is proposed to be developed with a 3-storey, 162,000 SF Wal-Mart, a 4-storey retail/parkade structure, and several 1-2 storey retail buildings centred around a High Street running through the site. There will be 20-70 CRU’s and a total leasable area of 372,000 SF.

SmartCentres had initially made a rezoning application in 2003, but was delayed due to a variety of issues including assembly of lots and the development of the West Cambie Area Plan by the City of Richmond.

Source: City of Richmond

Paul Adornato, REIT Analyst, BMO Capital Markets, shares his thoughts on how 2012 REITs performed and what we will see in 2013.  Specifically, Paul sees growth in Industrial focused REITs citing a lack of significant development in this sector.

To view the video click HERE.